The invention relates to a dispenser of paper or other flexible products in sheet form, such as non-woven or dry-made products, the dispenser including a removable cartridge.
More specifically, the invention concerns a paper dispenser having a housing storing the paper in the form of folded sheets to dispense the paper through a dispensing orifice.
Many products presently are available in the form of individual, folded and stacked sheets ready for dispensing. This is especially the case for paper towels.
However, a product of a given type may be offered in different sizes or may be made of papers of different kinds and, in particular, of different thicknesses depending on the dispenser location and also depending on the habits of the anticipated users.
Proper paper dispenser operation requires appropriately storing and guiding the paper sheets inside the dispenser.
Moreover, the paper dispensing orifice, which generally is a slot at the base of the housing, must match the format of the paper sheets, the manner in which they are folded, and the actual kind of paper.
Heretofore it has been necessary either to design a housing dedicated to each type of dispensed product or to make do with a xe2x80x9cuniversalxe2x80x9d housing which, in many cases, is less than wholly satisfactory, often causing cramming and interference with paper dispensing or, on the contrary, allowing simultaneous dispensing of several sheets.
In order to offer a simple, reliable and economic solution to the above problems, the invention proposes a dispenser of the above species which is characterized in that the paper is contained in a cartridge mounted in the housing and in that the cartridge includes a base wall situated opposite a housing aperture, the base wall including a dispensing opening of a shape matching the paper sheets to be dispensed, and in that the cartridge includes guide walls for the stack of folded sheets.
In other features of the invention:
the cartridge is open at its top to allow loading it with paper,
the cartridge is kept elastically nested inside the housing,
the housing includes a detachable cover allowing insertion of the cartridge into the housing,
the cartridge is made at least in part of molded plastic,
the cartridge is integrally made of molded plastic,
the cartridge is integrated into a stack of paper sheets,
the cartridge is made at least in part of cardboard.
Furthermore, the invention also offers a cartridge for a folded sheets dispenser, characterized in that the cartridge is mounted in a dispenser having any one of the above features.